American Friction Welding, in Brookfield, Wis., will install a new friction-welding system to help complete a recently secured, six-year supply contract for automotive thermocouple components.  AFW ordered a new fully automated system from Thompson Machine, a British manufacturer of rotary friction-welding systems used by customers supplying a wide range of industrial markets, including aerospace, automotive, construction machine, and oil-and-gas exploration.

American Friction Welding will join three parts in a two-stage operation.

AFW’s customer for the thermocouples has not been reported. Its new Thompson Model 15 will join three parts in a two-stage operation. It explained it chose the machine for its high-performance welding and space-saving installation. Thompson integrated a series of automated component loading/unloading features so that AFW can perform friction welding with just one system, rather than two machines.

“We’re ramping up our operation to manage the increase in business over the next two years and we see no problem in investing in a large piece of capital equipment, such as the Thompson machine, in order to improve the success of our customers and aid our future growth,” explained AFW president John Fischer.

AFW’s new Model 15 will be the fourth Thompson machine it has acquired over the past 15 years. It uses the other three machines to join components supplied truck manufacturers, construction products, and components used for food and chemical processing machinery.

“Thompson machines are built extremely well and they are designed to last many years in a very high production environment. They are easy to operate, and Thompson’s excellent control system monitors and records every aspect of the weld process,” according to Fischer.

AFW retrofitted a Thompson control package to a competitor’s machine, and indicates it plans to do the same on another system.